Haven't been around these parts much lately... Hope all is well!
The dart hall has been open for nearly 3 years now! It's been growing and evolving constantly along the way. All of the arcade machines have been sold and more dart machines have been brought in. Currently there are 7 Radikal boards, 2 Phoenix boards, and 4 steel tip boards.
Lots has happened to the steel tip set ups since my last post. They got upgraded from 8" tablets to PCs with 21" touchscreen monitors (thanks Rodney). I even built 360 degree lighting boxes to eliminate shadows. However, as much as I try to get people interested in steel tip, it's declining in popularity and soft tip is increasing.
This past spring season was the busiest I've had yet, and actually had to turn teams away for some leagues being at capacity. It's time to make room for more soft tip machines. The steel tip board stands and raised oches are going away. I still want to offer steel tip leagues though, so I had to come up with a solution.
Now, some quick dart specifications... The throwline distance from the face of a soft tip board is 8'. The throwline distance from the face of a steel tip board is 7' 9 1/4". The thickness of a Winmau Blade 5 steel tip dartboard is 2" from the face of the board to the backboard or wall it's mounted to. That leaves me 3/4"... PERFECT!
One thing I hate the most about any project I find myself doing down here is... I have to replicate everything I do multiple times.
I picked up a couple 2'x4' 3/4" particle board "handi-panels" and some hardware. Used a jigsaw to cutout my first backboard, and a router to copy the original 3 more times... Burned up my first router bit bearing in the process. Had some metal tubing laying around that worked out perfect for spacers. And used some flat strap brackets to grip the backboard to the soft tip machine.
Used my favorite paint, Rustoleum oil based semi gloss black, to pretty them up. And installed the board mounting hardware on the backboards. The result was better than I expected. I didn't think the existing soft tip lighting would light up the steel tip boards, but they do! However, I have plans for additional lighting for these.
A close up of the mounting system. This allows me to slip the steel tip board and backboard right over the soft tip board without any tools, quickly.
So... This whole assembly puts the face of the steel tip board exactly 2 3/4" in front of the face of the soft tip board, which allows me to use the same throw line for both soft and steel tip, negating the need for the raised oches I built years ago.
"Progress"